Beyond College: Build an Eye-Catching Resume

You're working hard to earn your college degree, and you want a great job to show for it. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that in November of 2007, 7.2 million Americans were unemployed. Fortunately, creating a strong resume can help you avoid the ranks of the jobless and catapult yourself into a lucrative career.

Want to make sure that your resume looks amazing? Follow these guidelines.

Keywords Count: Customizing Your Resume

More and more employers and college admissions officers are using computer software to take the guesswork out of resume reviewing. When applicants' resumes arrive, they are often fed through a computer to pick out keywords. For example, a sales company might scan for keywords such as "sales proficiency," "bachelor's degree," or "communication skills."

To make sure your resume passes through the gauntlet, you should carefully review job ads and school admissions' guidelines for repeated words and phrases. Next, try to adjust the language of your resume to suit each job or college that you apply for. However, do not randomly insert keywords if they don't make sense. Carefully contextualize each word in your resume. Remember, while creating a few different resumes may seem like tons of work, it can pay off in spades if your resume sets you apart from other applicants.

Get With the Format: Setting Up Your Resume

It may be true that employers and admissions officers seek out creative individuals. Your personality, however, should come through in your resume's content, not its format. You should shun wacky fonts and crazy colors like the plague: they can make a resume look sloppy and amateurish.

Instead, use regular eleven or twelve point Times New Roman font. If possible, try to fit your resume onto one page, but make sure your resume does not look overcrowded with information. Also, you may want to find sample resumes online. If you are applying to colleges, find someone who has submitted successful college applications, and then ask them if you can see a sample of their resume.

Resume Editing 101: Final Tips to Sharpen Your Resume

Think your resume is perfect? Better double-check to be sure. Follow these guidelines to ensure your resume is up to snuff.

• Tidy up your articles: dig out unnecessary uses of "a," "the," and "an." For example, rather than writing "Directed the staff of the Beaumont Hotel," you might simply say "Directed Beaumont Hotel staff."

• Use vivid verbs:

  "supervised," "oversaw," and "managed" are strong, active verbs. You might also spice up your resume's language by editing out weak "to be" verbs and replacing them with action verbs.
• Insert bullet points: when you are making lists, try to use bullet points. Bullet points can improve your resume's readability by leaps and bounds.

Lastly, you should never exaggerate your resume's claims. The full truth about your job experience is almost always discovered via interviews, reference checks, and performance reviews. To avoid future embarrassment, you should always stick as closely to the facts as possible.

Consider a Pro Resume Writing Service

If you want help building an amazing resume, consider hiring a professional resume service. Resume services employ highly qualified experts who can fine-tune your resume's voice, grammar, structure, editing, and formatting. Whether you hire a resume service or perform your own editing, it's vital for you to know what today's employers are searching for in a resume.